Doctors allowed to date former patients

A watchdog has updated its guidance on doctors having romantic relationships
with their former patients, urging medical professionals to use their "professional
judgement" to decide if it is appropriate.

Doctors will be allowed to form romantic relationships with their former patientsPhoto: Alamy

By Melanie Hall

8:58AM GMT 26 Mar 2013

Until now, the General Medical Council has discouraged doctors from having relationships with former patients deemed vulnerable at the time they were being treated, and it continues to ban them with current patients.

The watchdog has now issued new guidelines clarifying the risks doctors need to consider before embarking on a romance with a former patient, such as taking into account that some patients can be more vulnerable than others.

However, a number of senior doctors have warned that dating former patients is "flawed" and risks undermining the public's trust in the profession.

The guidance, issued yesterday, tells doctors they still cannot initiate 'sexual' or 'improper' relationships with current patients, but says they can date former patients, as long as they give "careful consideration" to certain factors.

These include the number of consultations they have previously had with the patient and the length of time since their last appointment, the Daily Mail reported.

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The updated guidelines outlined in the doctors' handbook Good Medical Practice, and which come into force next month, state: "If you are considering whether to pursue a personal relationship with a former patient, you must use your professional judgment.

"Although it would not be possible to specify a length of time after which it is acceptable to pursue a relationship with a former patient, it is reasonable to expect that the more recently a professional relationship ended the less likely it is to be appropriate to begin a personal relationship with the patient."

Patient groups welcomed the change, saying it was about time the watchdog moved into "the 21st century".

Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said: "I don't see any problem with it if they are no longer their doctor.

"I think it was all a bit of an old fashioned idea quite honestly. It seems sensible.

"They are getting into the 21st century and it's a good updating."

Some senior GPs, however, have previously warned that such relationships are always problematic.

Dr Surendra Kumar, a GP who practises in Widnes, Cheshire, said: "Consider the powers of the doctor. This is the only profession of which a member can ask a person to take their clothes off and find the request usually met with few questions and no resistance."

In an earlier interview with GP magazine Pulse, he said: "A proper emotional and sexual relationship is a partnership of equals, both parties enjoying the same rights, privileges and limitations.

"Any other basis for a relationship is flawed and needs to be criticised and resisted most vehemently. It is vital proper boundaries are maintained in relationships between doctors and patients."

However, Dr Tony Grewal, a senior GP who practises in West London, said the watchdog "should not limit the capacity of two consenting adults to explore a relationship".

Dr Grewal told Pulse at the time: "An absolute ban on sexual relationships with patients or former patients is an unfair limitation on the right to pursue happiness for doctors and patients alike.

"We need new, authoritative public guidance which acknowledges the changes of the last 20 years, maintains the necessary safeguards for the vulnerable against exploitation or coercion, but gives a framework for those who wish to develop proper relationships."

In 2011, a poll of 282 GPs by Pulse found that half wanted the rules to be changed to allow them to have relationships with former patients, while 2 per cent admitted they had begun relationships with patients they were still treating.